Soldering Clean Wire Splices

Here's a quick tip about properly splicing cables. This is handy for changing the connector on your solar panel, or simply making any two-wire cable longer.

This may seem like a basic skill, but I know that by the time I learned this technique, I wished someone had told me earlier.

You will need:

• Wire strippers
• Heat shrink tubing
• Helping hands tool
• Soldering iron
• Tweezers (optional)
• Solar panel, battery pack, headphone cable, etc. you wish to splice

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Step 1: Cut & Prepare

Start out by cutting your wires and stripping off the outer layer of insulation. Slide a big piece of heat shrink tubing onto one side of the wire, which we'll use at the end to seal everything up.

Strip and tin the inner wires, and apply smaller bits of heat shrink to one side.

Step 2: Arrange Asymmetrically & Solder

The trick here is to get the pair of connections to be the same length, but offset the solder joints. This has the benefit of not bulking up the cable with stacked connections, and also keeps the connections away from each other, minimizing risk for short circuits.

For the cleanest end result, cut the wires asymmetrically as shown. Don't forget the heat shrink tubing before tinning and soldering the wires together. If they don't turn out exactly the same, you can reheat the longer one to adjust. Match red to red and black to black (or white to black as in my case), then heat up the heatshrink tubing to insulate the solder joints.

Step 3: Seal It Up!

Repeat to insulate the entire junction with the larger piece of heatshrink tubing, and you can hardly tell there was any wire surgery!

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Comments

[DaviDBCoe]

I've been doing the exact same thing for 20 years. Right down to the three (3) pieces of heat shrink tubing, pre-soldering and staggering the splices (for compactness and as a fail-safe against a short circuit).

It is wonderful to find that I am not alone with such ideas. And most excellent to know that this technique is, indeed, not as crazy as my co-workers have said in the past. I ignored them (mostly), but unsolicited criticism is something I really dislike.

[AdrianM200]

I have likewise been using this exact technique for about 30 years and have NEVER had any failure in these joints. The secret is to apply only enough heat to melt the solder properly; the solder must be shiny afterwards. If the joint is matt then too much heat was applied and a dry joint formed.

I also ensure the two strands align as close as possible. This makes for a very compact, secure and neat joint.

[WolfgangW10]

Schrumpfschlauch mit dem Feuerzeug schrumpfen ist nicht die richtige Lösung. Richtig ist dies mit einem Heißluftfön.

[Mudcat15]

I don't have a hot air gun, so I fold a layer of aluminum foil over top and bottom of the heat shrink tubing before using a small flame. No soot, and seems to work better.

[jtancrede]

Immerse the shrink tubing in the flame (the blue or invisible portion). No soot.

[wizardclassics]

When connecting two wires, you should make a mechanically sound connection before soldering (eg by hooking both wires around each other), laying the two wires side by side increases the possibility of a dry joint. Another possibility is to make a coil of tinned copper wire which can be slid over the two wires (laying parallel) before soldering the whole assembly.

[jtancrede]

I agree. Properly splice the wires prior to soldering.

[gm280]

Nice job. What you created is called a "Lap" joint and it is used for the very reasons you stated, to not make a huge bulge in the wire by staggering the joints. I use that technique all the time and when done correctly, the wire length doesn't look bulky and lumpy. Nice project.

[jtancrede]

She should have used a splice to connect the wires for strength and electrical contact. She'd fail any class in soldering using that technique.

[ivak245]

Good instructions. A mechanical bond is good to incorporate into this (I have used this in thousands of soldered connections ) like twisting together. When the wires are being soldered only leave the iron on the joint long enough for the joint to form , or the solder will "wick" up the flexible conductors and you end up with a solid piece of conductor either end of the joint, which will limit it's flexibility.

[gm280]

There are ways to stop solder from wicking up under insulation. They make a special tool called a anti-wick tweezers. They come in different gauges depending on the wire size you have. And you simply clip them on the ends of the insulation and solder away. The tweezers stops any solder from wicking up under the insulation. They also have heat sink clamps that do the very same thing. Check them out. It solves the wicking solder problems.

[COMPUTIAC]

In your list of things you will need, you did not say what type of

solder to get or if any flux is needed.

[jtancrede]

60/40 rosin core solder.

[jtancrede]

Ooh. You shouldn't solder wires without making a proper splice. It provides good electrical contact and strength to the connection. I do like the offset idea however.

[vishnumaiea]

Oh! I'm in love with those photographs. Real eye candies! RIP connector BTW.

[Waste Of Space]

It would also be necessary to use a multimetre to check that he earth side is connected to the earth side and that the positive is connected to the positive side. You cannot just rely on the colours of the cable to make the joint correctly polarised.

[rjkorn]

Great tips....

The staggering makes a nice smooth splice. Sometimes on larger cables I use some electrical tape under the heatshrink to really make it look seamless.

On garden wiring I coat the splice in RTV then slide the heatshrink over that and shrink it as the RTV is just starting to cure to make it waterproof...

[RicksterInstructables]

Ditto on the RTV.

Just don't use "GE Silicone 1" or any other silicone that smells like vinegar.

The acetic acid (vinegar smell) fumes emitted during curing will eat/corrode your wire badly.

[fred_]

It should say on the back of the tube acetoxy aka acid cure or alkoxy aka alcohol cure.

+1 The acetic acid (vinegar) stuff will chew up electronics.

[mariosk8s]

I love the simplicity of this method.